This is a great excerpt and video blog is from the ground-breaking new book of trade secrets, Ending Pain In Pregnancy.
Our abdominal muscles serve a far greater purpose than looking tight and awesome. This area is part of what I call the pelvic power relay station. The abdominal muscles create stability in our hips, PFMs and lumbar spine. Our midsections also provide support and stability for our internal organs, house the first two chakras and prevent energy leaks. If your abdominals are in a weakened state or are compromised by having a diastasis recti separation, you are at greater risk for female-related pelvic dysfunction. Diastasis recti separation occurs in many pregnant women and when addressed during pregnancy and corrected it can help prevent future female pelvic floor and low back conditions that can impact your daily life.
These conditions include an increase in urinary leaking, urgency and frequency of urination, sexual dysfunction, abdominal trigger points, pelvic floor muscle weakness or spasms and pelvic/low back pain. I cannot stress enough the importance of intelligent core training. Many women love to work their abdominals, but are doing it all wrong by performing outdated exercises such as traditional crunches. Performing the same old crunches will not improve your female pelvic power. In fact, traditional abdominal exercises can actually be contributing to your female pelvic symptoms.
Women who have undergone abdominal surgeries, Cesarean births and myomectomies must really focus on properly re-training their core in order to prevent the incontinence, pelvic pain and muscle spasms that are so prevalent after surgery. For women with pelvic pain, the core is not something to be ignored. Women with pelvic pain are often told not to work on their abdominals because
they risk having more pain. Sensible and intelligent core training will help women with both PFM weakness, pelvic floor muscle spasms and conditions like vulvodynia.
For women who are pregnant, it is important to begin to assess your diastais recti (DRA) to see where you fall on the scale. To test for your DRA, do the following:
1. Lie on your back with your knees bent.
2. Exhale and slightly lift your upper back off the floor with your arms reaching forward. Check how many fingers you are able to insert horizontally two inches above the umbilicus, at the umbilicus, and two inches below the umbilicus.
3. DRA of one- to two-fingers separation is considered normal. A three-finger separation requires correction.
To correct your DRA separation, please see the following video clip. This is a safe and effective way to address your abdominal separation. Please note, you can also do this exercise while laying down and you can get the same results.
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